Category Archives: Pro Wrestling

Here are live spoilers and impressions from the episode of Ring of Honor TV that will air this weekend. The episode was taped in the DuBurns Arena in Baltimore on August 3.

Match 1: The Briscoes def. BLKOUT (Ruckus and BLK Jeez) in a Tag Team Title tournament first round match in 9 minutes.

CROWD: BLKOUT! BLKOUT! BLKOUT!

Fun note: Rashad Cameron (BLK Jeez) in TNA had the gimmick where he kept an afro comb in his hair. I saw him walking around backstage before the show and he was still teasing out his hair with the comb. Apparently that’s no gimmick!

Despite this being their first ROH appearance (at least in Baltimore), BLKOUT was getting a great reaction. There were even dueling “BLKOUT” , “Man up!” chants. A lot of fans were individually chanting for Ruckus. Everyone earned their cheers tonight as this was a fun match.

Early on, Jeez launches over the top rope, taking out both Briscoes. Ruckus runs along the ropes and does a running shooting star press onto the pile! Jeez poses!

Mark Briscoe regains control. He begins his second rope shimmy where he chants like a Native American and then jumps off, missing a senton. Jay was great here. He looked perturbed at Mark the whole time he was doing this nonsense. When he missed, he yells, “Man, I told you to cut that sh*t out!” Hilarious.

BLKOUT execute a coordinated series of three tag team maneuvers, a la the Motor City Machineguns. Mark makes the hot tag to Jay, who hits consecutive axe handles followed by a big boot to Ruckus. Ruckus tries two flippy-dippy moves and hits the first, but Jay counters and lays him out during the second.

Mark’s running dropkick sends Jeez out of the ring and disrupts a BLKOUT tag team maneuver. Jay hits a neckbreaker on Ruckus. Mark hits the big froggy elbow off the top rope. Jay gets the pin.

BLKOUT receives a really nice standing ovation after the match. The Baltimore ROH fans clearly want them to come back.

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Match 2: “Rock and Roll” Mike Sydal def. Mike Bennett in 5 minutes – Moments after the match begins the crowd chants “you can’t wrestle” at Bennett. He then goes into a keylock rest hold to prove them right.

Bennett attempts a piledriver, but referee Todd Sinclair warns him not to do it. This allows Sydal to get a near fall. He escapes Bennett’s charge with a matrix manoeuvre and hits a neckbreaker slam.

Bennett fights back and hits a big boot followed by the Box Office Smash. He goes for the pin, but pulls Sydal’s head up at two. Bennett tries instead to tap him out, but Mike Mondo comes to ringside and forcibly kisses Maria. This draws Bennett. Mondo eggs him on. Bennett chases Mondo around the ring two full times before Mondo runs to the back with Bennett in hot pursuit. Maria yells to Bennett that he’s about to be counted out, but it’s too late. Mike Sydal picks up the win via countout.

CROWD: Mondo! Mondo! Mondo!

Barrister R.D. Evans is on commentary.

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Match 3: Tommaso Ciampa def. Mike Posey in 2 minutes – Chiampa plays the early aggressor with a kick to the face and stomps on Mike Posey. Posey reverses a Kryptonite Krunch attempt, but Chiampa responds by just throwing him over the top rope to the floor. Posey hits a big leg lariat over the top rope, but Chiampa’s up quick and hits a strong clothesline. He pulls down his knee pad and does four running knees to Posey’s head. He drags Posey to the middle of the ring, deadlifts him and hits Project Chiampa.

Chiampa’s celebration music stops and we notice that Prince Nana is attacking R.D. Evans at the commentary position. In the fray, they knock the entire commentary desk to the floor. Chiampa is furious and charges towards the commentary position. He’s clearly very upset. He starts throwing chairs. After they break things up, six members of the crew work for several minutes putting the desk back together.

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Match 4: Michael Elgin (with Truth Martini) vs. Adam Cole for the ROH Television Title goes to a no contest – Michael Elgin abides by the code of honor, much to the disappointment of Truth Martini who grimaces, stares at the ground and walks away.

Cole and Elgin exchange something like 14 low-impact, fast, technically sound countermanuevers to start the match followed by about 6 near-fall pinning combinations. Fun stuff! Cole charges Elgin near the ropes. Elgin dodges and hits a release German suplex. Cole misses a sunset bomb but hits a backcracker. The men trade shots from their knees. Elgin attempts to counter Cole’s top rope splash into a powerbomb, but Cole escapes and hits a superkick. He follows with Cole-ateral (I think…it looked like a scoop brainbuster to me). Two count.

There are dueling Cole/Elgin chants. Cole sunset flips from the middle turnbuckle, but Elgin catches him, deadlifts him and hits a bucklebomb…but oh no! Todd Sinclair was stuck in the corner and got crushed.

The Guardians of Truth run in.

ELGIN [grabbing Guardian]: What are you doing!? This is my match! It’s the TV Title!

Corino and Jacobs run out. They tangle up with the Guardians. Kevin Steen runs out and into the ring. He and Elgin have a stare down.

CROWD: Ooooooooooo!!!

Kevin Steen pushes Elgin, and Elgin pushes him back and now they wailing on each other with punches. Rhino charges to the ring and starts attacking Steen. Michael Elgin is just a fuming ball of rage as he watches his chance to win the TV Title succumb to chaos.

Roderick Strong runs to the ring. He grabs Elgin by the shoulder, turns him around and then kicks Steen.

ELGIN (to Roderick): What are you doing here!?

Rockerick removes his shirt and stares down Elgin. Elgin pushes him.

ELGIN: You want this!? You want this, Roddy?

Elgin pulls down the straps. Meanwhile, Rhino and Steen continue to battle on the outside while Adam Cole is being assisted to the back. A swarm of referees descends upon the ring. Roderick grabs the Book of Truth.

ELGIN: Come on! Hit me with it! Hit me with it!

TRUTH: Hold on! Hold on!

ELGIN: Hit me! You want it you son of a bitch? Let’s go!

TRUTH: No no! Let’s not do this. Not here. Not at this time.

Roderick is pointing his finger right in Elgin’s face. Elgin, furious, continues to stare Roderick down. Roderick will not relent. He drops the Book of Truth and gets right in Elgin’s face. Elgin kicks the Book of Truth out of the ring. Truth stares at the book with dejection and picks it back up.

CROWD: Elgin! Elgin! Elgin!

TRUTH: Guys, hold on a second. Enough’s enough. We’re a cohesive unit. You need to stick together, especially for the next match because it’s going to be us three against some Baltimore punks named D-Line and the local moron DJ Christoff.

RODERICK: I’m going to tell you one thing, Elgin. If you lose this match tonight I swear to you I’m gonna slap you in that big fat kisser, porky.

Following his slight, Roderick immediately runs and jumps out of the ring.

Truth feins a hamstring industry. Roderick grabs Christoff’s beard and slaps him in the face.

RODERICK: Come on, Christoff!

A collar-and-elbow-tie-up between Black Ice and Elgin leads nowhere, but it’s clear that Elgin respects Black Ice’s strength. Elgin can’t seem to overpower him, so he just knees him in the gut and follows up with shots. Ice is whipped into the buckle but charges out with a clothesline. Elgin pushes him back into the corner.

Roderick tags in by slapping Elgin’s chest. Mocking D-Line’s football player gimmick, Roderick mimics like he’s being hiked the ball, hesitates, then delivers a big chop.

Truth tag in. He slaps Black Ice’s chest, but hurts his hand. Roderick’s back in, but Black Ice hits a belly-to-back suplex. Two count. Black Ice holds Roderick in a sidewalk slam position while Bodysnatcher comes in and hits a jumping leg lariat.

Christoff tags in. He throws two turnbuckle thrusts into Roderick’s midsection. Roderick kicks him in the gut. He’s down, but fights back up. Strong kicks him in the gut again. As Christoff fights to regain his footing, Bodysnatcher smacks Roderick to the ground. Christoff starts throwing kicks, not great kicks, but he’s throwing them.

Bodysnatcher’s in. His spear towards the buckle misses. Roderick catches Bodysnatcher’s big boot, throws it outside the ring, kicks him in the groin and lands a big kick to the side of his head..

Bodysnatcher fights out of Elgin’s submission maneuver. He fights for the tag, but Elgin cuts him off, slamming him down.

Truth’s in. He kicks at Bodysnatcher knee. As Bodysnatcher recovers Roderick quickly tags in and promptly dropkicks him right in the face. He applies the figure-four then tags Elgin in. Elgin pauses then tags Roderick back in. Bodysnatcher fights back but his knee is giving him a lot of trouble. Roderick puts him in figure four variation in which he applies additional horizontal pressure to the knee with his left foot (I don’t know what this is called).

Bodysnatcher eventually escapes and Black Ice makes the hot tag. He knocks down Roderick, Elgin, Roderick and clotheslines Elgin. He splashes Elgin in one corner then does the same to Roderick. D-Line assumes side-by-side three point stances and performs a double-spear on Elgin. Roderick charges but Bodysnatcher cuts him off with a reverse spin kick. Knee by Black Ice. Boot by Bodysnatcher. Roderick’s out of the ring and Truth gets pushed in. He’s surrounded by both members of D-Line.

TRUTH: Oh no! Oh no!

Bodysnatcher grabs his hair and tags in Christoff. A helicopter spin makes Truth dizzy. Black Ice kicks him in the gut. Christoff gives Truth double middle fingers and hits him with a stunner for the pin. Truth never even took off his sunglasses.

Earlier today I was asked the question, “Why do people enjoy professional wrestling when other things, like mixed martial arts, are real?” I include below the response I wrote for Quora.

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This question presumes that the choice between MMA and WWE is an either/or proposition. Despite sharing common elements, the two are distinctly different forms of entertainment and are appealing for different reasons.

MMA is a legitimate athletic sport, while professional wrestling is a form of entertainment. While MMA’s results are not predetermined, this can be either a blessing or a curse. At best, mixed martial arts can be highly dramatic and unpredictable. At worst, it can be drawn out, boring or over in a flash.

Professional wrestling offers an improvement over the MMA model – it has the artistic liberty to craft its own narrative. If done well, there should never be a boring professional wrestling segment.

Some people are troubled by this. They wonder how anyone can enjoy pro wrestling’s offerings when they know what they are seeing isn’t real. Strangely, they seldom fret over the scripted nature of television, movies, novels or other similar works. The key with all these art forms is the same – suspension of disbelief. The only way to truly enjoy a performance is by allowing yourself to be sucked in by it.

My second response is that it is naÃ¯ve to consider professional wrestling “fake.” Not only must wrestlers possess real resilience and athleticism, but what is presented in arenas around the world is far more “real” than most people understand.

While the key storylines and finishes to matches are predetermined, what happens between the ropes is mostly improvised. The effect is similar to that of improv comedy. Two performers who understand the basic toolbox of their craft can play off each other, creating a completely original performance each time out. In pro wrestling, as with comedy, becoming a master requires years of training and experience.

Connoisseurs of wrestling acknowledge these skills and are appreciative of seeing moves, counters and chains they never have before. For many fans the “real” aspect of in-ring performance is more important than the scripted component of who wins and loses. In most cases, the latter is a tool to enhance the former.

The best professional wrestlers not only know more moves than their MMA counterparts, but because wrestling is more a showcase than a pure competition, they are permitted more opportunity to display them. For example, a top rope hurricanrana or a superkick are spectacles to behold in wrestling, but they, like many other moves, are unthinkable in MMA. Again, people seldom seem concerned when similar actions occur in the context of, say, a Hollywood fight scene.

In MMA, the fighters who make it to the top of the card (ignoring political considerations) are generally the most skilled, but not necessarily the most entertaining. The best professional wrestlers are not only tough and athletically gifted, but also can speak well on a microphone, have great innate charisma, and possess the underrated ability to tell a compelling story using in-ring psychology.

Fan involvement is more pronounced in professional wrestling. If the fans chant for, buy the merchandise of, and generally support a particular performer, then WWE will, as a financially motivated company, push that performer higher up the card. This ability to drive the trajectory of the product creates a level of fan involvement MMA doesn’t provide. The pro wrestling business is a meritocracy, one in which fans are in control of who gets promoted.

I have also found the emotional connection fans have for their favorite wrestlers are often stronger than those they have for their favorite MMA fighters. Starting as a kid, I watched one of my favorites, Shawn Michaels, on television every week for years, gradually becoming more invested in the character.

But over time, I began to appreciate that the best wrestlers are hardly characters at all (e.g. CM Punk), but are merely exaggerated versions of their real personas. When I cheer as a fan, I am not only helping create a lively atmosphere, but I’m also expressing support to the performer behind the character. When your favorites win, it’s a vindication of sorts. It means that those who script the show see as much value in them as you do. Whenever you get a chance to meet the wrestlers at events (which happens surprisingly often), it only serves to make that connection stronger.

And the thing is, when all of these pieces fall together in just the perfect combination, there is nothing better in the world than professional wrestling. For those who want to experience this for themselves, I suggest you check out WWE’s Summer of Punk 2011 surrounding the Money in the Bank PPV and its main event match of the year.

Finally, for fans who are really in-the-know, pro wrestling websites offer backstage news that provides an entirely new dimension to the business. For example, in late March 2012, news broke that former UFC champion Brock Lesnar was in negotiations to return to WWE. This built fans’ hopes and anticipation for an imminent return. Trying to predict when it will occur and under what circumstances can be just as much fun as the matches themselves.

For another example, consider the case of WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan. After winning and defending the title for months in weaselly ways, this undersized but exceptionally skilled wrestler defended, and lost, his World Heavyweight Championship in near record time at Wrestlemania 28. As a big fan of Daniel Bryan, I was intrigued by how WWE would choose to present him at the show, an aspect distinct from his actual performance.

After the loss, I can’t help but wonder about the backstage politics that led to the title change. Has the company lost faith in him or was this done just for shock value? Is the fact that the new champion’s first defense is against another returning Superstar suggestive of the fact that Bryan’s time is over? I don’t know how things will shake out for him, but I can’t wait to find out.

I’m going to nerd-out for a moment and post my autographed cover of Ring of Honor’s Unified DVD.

As I have written about before on this site, Ring of Honor is the third largest professional wrestling promotion in the United States and the proving ground for some of the world’s top talent. On August 12, 2006, ROH held an event in Liverpool, England called Unified. The main event was a title unification bout between the ROH Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuinness and the ROH World Heavyweight Champion American Dragon Bryan Danielson.

Several years later, after Bryan Danielson was released from WWE for being “too violent,” he returned to the independent circuit where he made a limited number of appearances. One was at Dragon Gate USA show I attended in South Philadelphia’s Asylum Arena called Enter the Dragon. After his main event match, Bryan stuck around to take photographs with and sign autographs for every last person who wanted one, an extremely generous act considering the size of the queue. The window of opportunity to get this autograph was short, because within a few short weeks, he was brought back into WWE where he experienced a fast rise to the top of the company. He is currently heading to the main event of Wrestlemania 28 as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion.

Nigel McGuinness, who is also a former ROH World Heavyweight Champion, is known for his technical and hard-hitting style. After leaving ROH, he had a memorable series of matches in Total Nonstop Action performing as Desmond Wolfe before having his career cut short by a medical condition. He has since returned to Ring of Honor as the company’s color commentator, where he has been doing an outstanding job. I managed to catch up with Nigel after the first set of ROH television tapings at the Du Burns Arena in Baltimore, MD. I explained how Bryan had signed one half and how I hoped he would sign the other. He agreed readily and then mentioned to me, “You know, it’s pretty hard to get both of us.”

This past weekend I attended Dragon Gate USA Bushido 2011: Code of the Warrior, an independent professional wrestling event held in Philadelphia, PA. I brought my camera for the first time and captured these images of the action for your personal amusement. Just click any one of them to enlarge.

For those of you who don’t follow the professional wrestling industry obsessively like I do, here’s your executive summary. There are two big pro wrestling companies in the US, WWE and TNA. Below them are smaller companies that usually draw no more than 1500 attendees to a show (if they’re lucky). Among the biggest of these “independents” are Ring of Honor (which was, incidentally, immortalized in the Darren Aronofsky film The Wrestler), Evolve, Combat Zone Wrestling, and newcomer, Dragon Gate USA. You can search YouTube for Dragon Gate clips, but here’s a little to whet your appetite:

I’ve gone to every one of DGUSA’s Philly shows, which have all been held on Saturday evenings. I’ve also taken on the role of Pied Piper by slowly building my coterie of friends willing to attend. The ritual includes a two hour car ride north to Philadelphia, a stop at Tony Luke’s to get some classic Philly cheese steaks, and a short walk down the street to The Arena, a converted bingo hall and Mecca of Professional Wrestling.

It was here that the renegade Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion was born. The wrestling company that asserted “We’re hardcore!”, ECW was the over-the-top answer to a stale mainstream wrestling product. While WWF was offering sports entertainers pretending to be garbage men and minotaurs, ECW was providing realism, technical prowess, high-flying, and the occasional splattering of blood and guts.

In one particularly memorable moment, the wrestler Taz and his referee-turned-manager Bill Alfonso came to the ring and demanded Sabu, his principle rival. Here’s what went down:

And to our great delight, look who was signing autographs and taking photos at the show! It was the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal Sabu!

About Me

Hi, I’m Mike Specian. I am currently a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow hosted at the U.S. Department of Energy. This site is a repository for things that matter to me including science, energy, climate, public policy, and photography from around the world. You can follow me on Twitter, through an RSS feed or by subscribing to email updates below.